Congress Enacts (S. 4209) to Provide Benefit Charging Procedure Relief for Reimbursing Employers
On July 9, 2020 the US House or Representatives passed S. 4209 by unanimous consent to provide a much-needed fix to help reimbursing employers manage the required payments in lieu of contributions charged to their accounts for unemployment compensation. The passage came after the US Senate had also passed the bill by unanimous consent. This remarkable bi-partisan action by both [...]
What Comments Were Filed on CMS Proposed Civil Monetary Penalty Rules and When Will CMS Respond ?
Many comments were submitted in response to proposed rules released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on February 18, 2020. There has been very little communication from CMS about how it plans to respond to the comments. The process of developing rules goes back to December of 2013 with the first rules proposal that was met with [...]
UWC Opposes Longshore Workers’ Comp Presumption for COVID in HEROES Act
On Monday, June 8, 2020, UWC submitted a letter of opposition to the House and Senate Committees with jurisdiction concerning Title V Section 120501 of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HEROES Act) as it was passed by the House of Representatives. The letter was submitted to assure that the committees with jurisdiction over the Longshore Act [...]
Congressman Kevin Brady, House Ways and Means Ranking Member, Introduces Return To Work Bonus Legislation
On June 1, 2020, Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX), the Ranking Member on the House Committee on Ways and Means, announced introduction of the Reopening America by Supporting Workers and Businesses Act of 2020. Background: As part of the CARES Act, Congress provided $600/week in supplemental unemployment benefits to provide much needed support and economic relief for workers who lost their [...]
US DOL or Congress Should Act Now to Address PUA Fraud
On May 26, 2020 the US DOL Inspector General released an Alert Memorandum identifying serious problems in interpretation and administration of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program created in the CARES Act. The primary concern identified is that US DOL’s interpretation that entitlement to PUA benefit payments may be based solely on a check the box self-certification by the applicant. [...]
Three States Already Trigger Regular Extended Benefits on Top of COVID-19 Emergency Benefits
The COVID-19 recession is already so deep as to not only have triggered special expanded benefits through congressional action but now is beginning to trigger “on” in an increasing number of states to regular extended benefits (EB) under permanent federal law. For the week ending April 26, 2020 Connecticut, Michigan and Rhode Island triggered on up to 13 weeks of [...]